A confidential report says that Greensboro's former police chief "crippled" his department with unfair discipline for black officers and by threatening commanders who questioned his decisions, the Greensboro News & Record reported yesterday.

The 75-page report by an independent consultant describes how a group of black police officers were repeatedly investigated, undermined and singled out for minor complaints or over allegations that had been dismissed.

It also describes a pattern of deceit and secrecy and selective investigations by a covert unit working under former Chief David Wray and Deputy Chief Randall Brady.

"Wray knew or should have known that this Special Intelligence Division had crossed the line of appropriateness," wrote retired law-enforcement investigators hired from Risk Management Associates. "The chain of command ... between Wray and the unit's activity was only one person, Deputy Chief Brady." The report was based on several interviews and internal documents.

Risk Management Associates of Raleigh was hired to determine whether Wray told the truth to city leaders and the public last June, when a black lieutenant discovered Special Intelligence following him on duty.

Wray, who took office in July 2003, resigned in January, after City Manager Mitchell Johnson had received the report. Brady left the department in late November.

"Anybody who is paying attention, anybody who can fog a mirror is going to realize that Chief Wray doesn't come up through the ranks for 25 years, become the first white police chief in 20 years and all of a sudden wake up one day a card-carrying racist," he said. "That's preposterous."

The report described how black officers were investigated for infractions that, in similar cases involving white officers, were dismissed or downplayed.

In one case, a black officer whose gun was stolen was investigated by Internal Affairs and made to pay for a replacement gun. But a white police captain who reported his gun stolen did not undergo an internal investigation, even though his account was deemed "inconsistent," the report said. The FBI is investigating whether civil-rights violations took place.